Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

I hear ya, I'm ready to get going ASAP as well but I am going to wait until I find the right truck, that is one thing I do NOT want to rush. Too picky when it comes to stuff like that, lol. In the meantime just trying to save as much as I can... which means I need to stop buying truckstop food, something I have been very bad about over the past several weeks... NAT just got updated, so that means a new preassignment must be coming soon... fingers crossed for more running like I've done the past 2 weeks!

 

Unfortunately OnGuard is on and working all the time.

Here is the most dangerous situation that I can describe with it:

Lets say you are headed down the road with the cruise control on, no one is in front of you. OnGuard is still on, but it hasn't detected a vehicle in front of you.

Next, a car passes and then cuts back in front of you too soon, not leaving enough space and slows down from passing speed to barely above your own speed.

You disengage cruise, put your foot on the throttle to control your speed.

This is where it gets dangerous - when your foot is on the throttle it generally overrides OnGuards braking ability. I have had it apply the brakes while I have been on the throttle once, but only once. So, you are thinking "ok, I'll release the throttle, drop some speed and open up a safe gap, or drop speed to safely change lanes, etc". You let off the throttle, and suddenly the system realizes you are not on the throttle any more, stops being overridden and applies the brakes, hard.

I am not making this kind of situation up, I have had it happen time and time again. What happens if I'm on an extremely slick surface? I wouldn't be using cruise obviously on a slick surface, but the same situation could still cause the OnGuard system to engage even if I wasn't using the cruise at all.

That's why I won't buy a truck with the system on it, unless I can disable it myself. In theory its a good idea. But the bottom line is it can't process the same amount of information that we as a driver can, and therefore cannot always make safe actions.

Driving now I am constantly applying throttle manually whenever someone in front of me is exiting, changing lanes in front of me, etc., for fear that it will slam on the brakes when another truck is close behind me. 2 days ago I had it slam the brakes TWICE because it picked up mudflaps sailing back on passing trucks that changed into my lane after passing me.

 

No, OnGuard is on and working all the time even when cruise is disengaged. Normally it will beep but if it senses enough it will apply the brakes even when cruise is disengaged, don't sit there and tell me it doesn't when I and several other drivers have had it happen.

 

Like I said I've talked to several other drivers that have experienced this too, not just me. What year are your trucks mines a 2012.